RMS Update to TAC May 8, 2008

RMS Update to TAC ► At April 9 RMS Meeting:  Antitrust Training  RMS Voting Items: ► NPRR097Changes to Section 8 to Incorporate Role of TRE, the IMM, and the Concept of Market Compliance  RMS recommended approval of Task Force comments deleting language in 8.3(1)(e) to remove posting requirement of TSP charges for ESI Ids ► PRR759, Changes to Notification to Customer of Service Establishment  RMS recommended approval with concern stated that cost savings represented in this PRR (over $450K annual savings) be reflected in the O&M budget and System Administration Fee in a future year.

RMS Update to TAC ► ERCOT Requested Exception to SLA to perform upgrades to Storage Area Network  Current SLA for Retail Transaction Processing: 99.9% ► Any outage regardless of duration  NAESB Proxy Servers  NAESB ► Outages greater than 15 minutes  Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)  Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)  Customer Registration Database  ERCOT maintained infrastructure supporting retail transaction processing

RMS Update to TAC ► ERCOT Request for Exception to SLA (cont.)  Current SLA Exceptions ► Maintenance Windows  1 st,3 rd and 4 th Sunday of each month-8am until 8pm ► Release Window  2 nd weekend each month-12:00pm Saturday until 12:00am Monday (36 hours) ► Exceptions  Market wide releases involving all Market Participants  For extended maintenance and release windows requested at RMS prior to extended outage

RMS Update to TAC ► ERCOT Request for Exception to SLA (cont.)  Concerns expressed at RMS ► First weekend of month high volume and imposes manual processes on Market Participants ► Frequent requests for exception from SLA dilute the value of having the SLA ► SLA needs to be revisited and reviewed to determine if adequate time is allowed for maintenance windows ► Notice of request provided <2 days prior to RMS ► Was not reviewed with TDTWG where expertise is

RMS Update to TAC ► ERCOT Request for Exception to SLA   Over the past 8 months ERCOT has requested multiple SLA exceptions that have been approved by RMS. ► ► August 25 – 27, 2007 (Migration of Databases to AIX) ► ► September 15 – 17, 2007 ( Migration of Databases to AIX) ► ► September 22 – 24, 2007 (Migration of Databases to AIX) ► ► October 20 – 22, 2007 (Migration of Databases to AIX) ► ► October 27-29, 2007 (Migration of Databases) ► Exception to SLA Not Granted ► ERCOT to perform the Storage Area Network upgrades during normal maintenance on May 4

RMS Update to TAC ► MarkeTrak slow system performance and failures  Causes: ► Application instability and limitations: Single vs. multi-threading processing abilitiesSingle vs. multi-threading processing abilities HTTP sessions management capabilitiesHTTP sessions management capabilities Application does not consistently release HTTP sessions, the current version does not allow for adjustment of timeout parameters Application does not consistently release HTTP sessions, the current version does not allow for adjustment of timeout parameters ► Storage hardware failures  When the storage area network (SAN) fails, the MarkeTrak application fails as well  Resolution: ► Application instability and limitations: Version upgrade that will address these issues has been in process since late ’07, two versions of the upgrade have failed ERCOT testing and have had to be returned to the vendor for fixesVersion upgrade that will address these issues has been in process since late ’07, two versions of the upgrade have failed ERCOT testing and have had to be returned to the vendor for fixes Most recent version upgrade is in ERCOT testing and if successful it will be promoted to production during the May releaseMost recent version upgrade is in ERCOT testing and if successful it will be promoted to production during the May release ► Storage hardware failures  Project to replace aged hardware has been in progress since late ’07 and is scheduled for implementation during the first weekend in May

RMS Update to TAC ► Creation of Market Impact Assessment Task Force  Purpose: Assess and quantify impacts to Market Participants and End-use Consumers from ERCOT service degradation issues in March.  Scope: Create a thorough report on the cause, severity and impacts.  Product: Formal report to RMS inclusive of definition of opportunities to mitigate market impact through refinement of SLA and inclusion of Market Impacts in the ERCOT Incident Log.  Update TAC of findings in June if complete.

RMS Update to TAC ► RMS Leadership Meeting  Reviewed TAC and Subcommittee Procedures ► Market Rules Presentation/Discussion  Reviewed Leadership Roles and Responsibilities ► RCS Presentation/Discussion with process recommendations for Leadership and ERCOT Meeting Facilitator, SME, support roles and processes.

RMS Update to TAC ► Advanced Metering Implementation Team  Technical Approach Discussions ► Central Repository or Multiple TDU Locations ► Web Portal Host(s) ► Interim and Long term considerations  Use Case and Task Assignments  Customer Education Workshop  ERCOT Settlement Discussions  Home Automation Network

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